ACSP Consultation: Suggestion to Remove the WHOIS Query Result Limit

ARIN received a request to remove the ARIN WHOIS query limit of 256 results. This limit has been in place since ARIN's inception as a means of curtailing data mining. ARIN is now considering a suggestion to raise the result limit, and would like to solicit input from the community. Rather than raise the limit to an arbitrary number, ARIN requests that you provide your specific feedback as to what the query results limit should be. ARIN asks for feedback based on your experiences with using ARIN's WHOIS directory service. It would be of particular interest to ARIN to receive input from larger organizations with many registered resources or sub-delegations regarding an appropriate result limit.

Although the poll elicited very few strong opinions on whether or not to increase the query results, ARIN feels that there was enough community interest expressed in this topic that it merits further consideration.

Consequently, we will not raise the WHOIS query results limit at this time, but will conduct testing of an increase to determine the impact on performance of the current system. The testing will be scheduled in our work plan in consonance with our current work load.